Holocaust Survivor Shares Story with 900 Cape Cod Students

When Jack Trompetter was just four months old, his parents made an impossible choice that saved his life.

Born in Amsterdam in 1942, two years into the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands, baby Jack was placed in hiding to escape the Holocaust. For the next three years, he never saw his mother and father, moving between his aunt's home, an orphanage, and finally the farmhouse of the DeGroot family in eastern Holland.

The DeGroots were Christian fundamentalist farmers who risked their own lives to shelter the Jewish infant. Meanwhile, Jack's parents hid separately in southern Netherlands, waiting for the day they could reclaim their son.

That reunion came in 1945, when Jack was three years old and meeting his parents for the first time he could remember.

Now 82, Trompetter stood before 900 students at Barnstable High School in Hyannis this April, sharing his story for the first time on Cape Cod. The seventh, ninth, and eleventh graders filled the school's Performing Arts Center to hear firsthand testimony from someone who lived through one of history's darkest chapters.

Why This Inspires

Trompetter's visit represents something precious and fleeting. As the generation of Holocaust survivors ages, their living testimonies become increasingly rare and valuable.

The Cambridge artist and member of the Greater Boston "Child Survivors of the Shoah" group brings more than historical facts to students. He offers living proof of resilience, the power of strangers who chose courage over complicity, and the importance of remembering.

By sharing his story with young people, Trompetter ensures that the lessons of the Holocaust continue beyond his generation. These students will carry his words forward, becoming the next generation of witnesses who can say, "I heard this from someone who was there."

Nearly 900 young people now know the name Jack Trompetter and the strangers who saved him.